Woo hoo!
Officially published the Homer-NY One Place Study web site at the beginning of this month. I've been getting it ready for the past month. What a feeling of accomplishment. I could have continued to wait until I had more content, but I really felt I needed to get it out there to keep my momentum to work on the project - and how else can I reach out and hopefully work with other individuals if I can't show them that I am serious about the project.
Now I can make a list of people and sites I want to contact to link to as well as collaborate. Collaboration is one of my key words for 2011. I read a blog by Chris Brogan, and he wrote a post about picking 3 words each year to guide and inspire him. I liked the idea and chose collaboration for one of my words for the year.
It is my greatest hope that this project will benefit others and provide new opportunities for collaboration on this project and others.
Welcome to the companion blog to the web site for a one place study of Homer, NY - a journey to recreate a historic town and it's pioneer residents with the help of fellow history and genealogy adventurers.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Starting the Homer Pioneer Database
I use Legacy Family Tree software for my own family genealogy files, so I created a new Legacy database to start recording all the pioneers of Homer. Legacy has a feature to create web pages, which I will use to attach the database to the www.Homer-NY.com web site for the one place study.
To get started, I found a nice index of the 1820 census on the Cortland County NYGENWEB site: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycortla/ - thanks to the volunteers who worked on that project. By importing the names into my data base it saved me creating each of those records and typing in the names and gave me a base to start with.
Next I went to Ancestry to read the digital copies of the census. I wanted to be sure I agreed with the interpretation of the names by the volunteers, plus I wanted to record the transcriptions of the composition of the households for future use, and source the information. I also looked at the name interpretations on Ancestry's name index. I have never compared the records of an entire town to the indexes before and was surprised by the number of errors I found. Ancestry does allow you to record your own record interpretations to correct the indexes, and I found myself reporting quite a few errors. Hopefully those corrections will help some newcomer find their ancestral records. Some mistakes were repeat misinterpretations of handwriting conventions of the time. Other mistakes made me wonder if Ancestry had used non English speaking volunteers to create these indexes - or individuals who had not lived in the United States. I got that impression when I saw names that even beginning US genealogists would have recognized without error recorded incorrectly, and these did not appear to be typographical errors, just interpretation errors.
Once I felt I had a good representation of the individuals on the 1820 census, I went backwards to record the individuals in the 1800 census. I had to remember that Homer was part of Onondaga County at that time. Another caution, when browsing the Homer census records, the beginning page is not under Homer, but under Fabius.
Accessing the digital copies of the 1810 census has been problematic. You can't browse the records - Homer doesn't come up. You can't search for Homer under the residence for individuals - it doesn't come up. You can search for Onondaga County and get Homer records, along with all the other towns. I'll let you know how I deal with these problems afterwards. I think I am going to go in a different direction next for variety sake.
To get started, I found a nice index of the 1820 census on the Cortland County NYGENWEB site: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycortla/ - thanks to the volunteers who worked on that project. By importing the names into my data base it saved me creating each of those records and typing in the names and gave me a base to start with.
Next I went to Ancestry to read the digital copies of the census. I wanted to be sure I agreed with the interpretation of the names by the volunteers, plus I wanted to record the transcriptions of the composition of the households for future use, and source the information. I also looked at the name interpretations on Ancestry's name index. I have never compared the records of an entire town to the indexes before and was surprised by the number of errors I found. Ancestry does allow you to record your own record interpretations to correct the indexes, and I found myself reporting quite a few errors. Hopefully those corrections will help some newcomer find their ancestral records. Some mistakes were repeat misinterpretations of handwriting conventions of the time. Other mistakes made me wonder if Ancestry had used non English speaking volunteers to create these indexes - or individuals who had not lived in the United States. I got that impression when I saw names that even beginning US genealogists would have recognized without error recorded incorrectly, and these did not appear to be typographical errors, just interpretation errors.
Once I felt I had a good representation of the individuals on the 1820 census, I went backwards to record the individuals in the 1800 census. I had to remember that Homer was part of Onondaga County at that time. Another caution, when browsing the Homer census records, the beginning page is not under Homer, but under Fabius.
Accessing the digital copies of the 1810 census has been problematic. You can't browse the records - Homer doesn't come up. You can't search for Homer under the residence for individuals - it doesn't come up. You can search for Onondaga County and get Homer records, along with all the other towns. I'll let you know how I deal with these problems afterwards. I think I am going to go in a different direction next for variety sake.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Homer, NY-One Place Study-Starting the Project
It's time to launch the official blog for the One Place Study for Homer, New York!
This project began in November 2010 as I began putting the pieces together to launch it, including the web site at www.homer-ny.com. I'd like to begin by explaining a little of what the project is, and why I chose Homer as my subject for the study.
What is a One Place Study?
I only recently learned about one place studies this year. After years of compiling my own family histories as well as working on the genealogies of a few friends, I found myself more and more interested in the dynamics of small towns in the United States where my ancestors were part of the pioneer settlers. How did these areas originally form? Who settled them? Where did those individuals come from? Did they travel alone, with other family members, with friends? How did the settlers interact with one another once they arrived? Have historic buildings been preserved or discarded? Who stayed in the area? Who moved on? The questions are endless.
I found that there are a number of One Place Studies in progress in England, and I found an online course being taught by Pharos Tutoring. While much of the content of the course was related to studying records in England, I got a lot of good ideas from the course, and got an opportunity to find some like minded individuals.
My definition of a One Place Study is the collection and analysis of information related to the early history of a singular location and its settlers. I am concentrating on the first 100 years to make the project somewhat manageable.
Why Homer, NY
I do not live in Homer, although I live about 40 minutes away. I did live in Homer as a child up until age 8, and have many fond memories of the town. My grandparents lived in Homer for most of their married life, my mother and aunt grew up there, my great grandparents lived and worked there, and back a number of generations, my ancestor Stephen Knapp was one of the founding settlers. Homer is one of those wonderful historic NY towns that has preserved its heritage. The streets are lined with wonderful historic buildings, many of them pictured on my web site. Homer is rich in heritage and a delight to visit, both important qualities for a study that will no doubt take much of my time over the years. I am hopeful that others who also love this little village and town will join me in this project, sharing their stories and artifacts to make this study a meaningful resource for anyone interested in this area.
Giving Back
I work for a nonprofit, and it is important to me to give back to society where I can. I have benefited greatly over the years from the generosity of others who have taken the time to study historical records and make them available to others through indexing, transcribing, putting information online, and so on. It is my hope that this project will be a benefit to many others.
Join and/or Follow
Please join me or follow me on this journey. In addition to pulling together information about Homer and its founding settlers in a new and interesting format, I hope to create a blueprint that others can use to create one place studies about other locations.
Let the journey begin!
This project began in November 2010 as I began putting the pieces together to launch it, including the web site at www.homer-ny.com. I'd like to begin by explaining a little of what the project is, and why I chose Homer as my subject for the study.
What is a One Place Study?
I only recently learned about one place studies this year. After years of compiling my own family histories as well as working on the genealogies of a few friends, I found myself more and more interested in the dynamics of small towns in the United States where my ancestors were part of the pioneer settlers. How did these areas originally form? Who settled them? Where did those individuals come from? Did they travel alone, with other family members, with friends? How did the settlers interact with one another once they arrived? Have historic buildings been preserved or discarded? Who stayed in the area? Who moved on? The questions are endless.
I found that there are a number of One Place Studies in progress in England, and I found an online course being taught by Pharos Tutoring. While much of the content of the course was related to studying records in England, I got a lot of good ideas from the course, and got an opportunity to find some like minded individuals.
My definition of a One Place Study is the collection and analysis of information related to the early history of a singular location and its settlers. I am concentrating on the first 100 years to make the project somewhat manageable.
Why Homer, NY
I do not live in Homer, although I live about 40 minutes away. I did live in Homer as a child up until age 8, and have many fond memories of the town. My grandparents lived in Homer for most of their married life, my mother and aunt grew up there, my great grandparents lived and worked there, and back a number of generations, my ancestor Stephen Knapp was one of the founding settlers. Homer is one of those wonderful historic NY towns that has preserved its heritage. The streets are lined with wonderful historic buildings, many of them pictured on my web site. Homer is rich in heritage and a delight to visit, both important qualities for a study that will no doubt take much of my time over the years. I am hopeful that others who also love this little village and town will join me in this project, sharing their stories and artifacts to make this study a meaningful resource for anyone interested in this area.
Giving Back
I work for a nonprofit, and it is important to me to give back to society where I can. I have benefited greatly over the years from the generosity of others who have taken the time to study historical records and make them available to others through indexing, transcribing, putting information online, and so on. It is my hope that this project will be a benefit to many others.
Join and/or Follow
Please join me or follow me on this journey. In addition to pulling together information about Homer and its founding settlers in a new and interesting format, I hope to create a blueprint that others can use to create one place studies about other locations.
Let the journey begin!
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